When operating an aircraft, it may be desirable to flexibly change a cargo-to-passenger ratio an aircraft cabin depending on current demands. In other words, it may be desired to flexibly change the configuration of at least an area of an aircraft cabin to allow for a transport of either passengers or cargo items, thus flexibly adapting the respective transport capacities of the aircraft. Furthermore, it may be desired to adjust the configuration of the aircraft cabin to particular transportation needs, for example the transport of a disabled person in a lying position.
For transporting passengers, an aircraft cabin needs to be equipped with seat arrangements. However, in case it is desired to use an area of the aircraft cabin partially or completely for transporting cargo items these seat arrangements occupy valuable space. Furthermore, the seat arrangements represent obstacles which limit possible dimensions of cargo items to be transported. Therefore, for allowing for a change from passenger to cargo transport, so far the complete seat arrangements have to be removed from a respective aircraft cabin area. This involves either a manual detachment of single seat arrangements from fastening rails and transporting them out of the aircraft or a complete removal of large palettes to which a plurality of seat arrangements are attached. As major disadvantages, these solutions are very time consuming and require seat arrangements to be present and/or storable at airports for reconfiguring the aircraft cabin area. Also, during loading and unloading of the seat arrangements these are exposed to all weather conditions.
EP 2 939 920 A1 and US 2015/0307179 A1 disclose a deployable floor panel arrangement for an aircraft cabin area which comprises a substantially planar floor panel with at least one foldable seat arrangement mounted thereto. The seat arrangement comprises at least one backrest which is configured to be movable is relative to the seating area between a stowed position in which it extends at an angle of approximately 0° to 40° to the plane of the floor panel and a deployed position in which it extends at an angle of approximately 80° to 180° to the plane of the floor panel. The seat arrangement further comprises at least one leg arrangement which is configured to be foldable in such a way that during the folding the seating area is moved towards the floor panel in a pivoting motion. The pivoting motion of the seating area and the pivoting motion of the backrest are oriented oppositely to each other.
For reconfiguring an aircraft cabin area equipped with the deployable floor panel arrangement for cargo transport, the floor panels with the seat arrangements in their folded configuration being mounted thereto are pivoted towards a sidewall of the aircraft cabin area until they extend at an angle of 90° to a floor area of the aircraft cabin area. The folded seat arrangements then are located between the floor panel and the sidewall of the aircraft cabin area, while the floor panel face the inside of the aircraft cabin area with its plan are underside which previously rested on the floor area. Thus, the floor panel defines a continuous and planar side wall facing the inside of the aircraft cabin area without providing any obstacles or projections.